


Bad Blood

by literally_no_idea



Series: Decking Howard [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 05:29:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18088325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: Pepper’s experienced some unwelcome surprises in the past. Finding out Tony’s dying of palladium poisoning and never shared that information? Surprising, terrifying, and concerning, not Pepper’s idea of a good evening. Having Tony challenge a terrorist to come to his house and giving the world his address on national television? Very unwelcome, incredibly unpleasant, not something Pepper ever wants to experience again. But this? This is a whole new level of insane.--title from the Taylor Swift song of the same name.





	Bad Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new, welcome! Each part of the series is a stand alone story, so if you haven't read the others, you don't have to if you want to read this one. Enjoy!

Pepper’s experienced some unwelcome surprises in the past. Finding out Tony’s dying of palladium poisoning and never shared that information? Surprising, terrifying, and concerning, not Pepper’s idea of a good evening. Having Tony challenge a terrorist to come to his house and giving the world his address on national television? Very unwelcome, incredibly unpleasant, not something Pepper ever wants to experience again. But this? This is a whole new level of insane.

 

Having Howard Stark barge into her office at Stark Industries with no warning? This is not only surprising, but also both confusing and infuriating. The man should definitely be dead, and from everything Tony’s told her about him, she definitely  _ wants _ him to be dead, so this is unwelcome on hundreds of levels.

 

“Can I help you?” She asks instead, because she’s getting used to this whole ‘crazy shit happening’ idea, and screaming isn’t going to help right now.

 

“You can, by returning control of this company to someone who's going to run it the way I intended for it to be run,” Howard spits.

 

Pepper stands up and walks around from behind her desk, standing across from Howard with her arms crossed. “I’m sorry, how are you even here in the first place? And why should I care what you think? I’ve helped run this company for years, and I’ve been CEO for six years now, and the company is doing better than it ever has in the past, so I’m not sure what you mean. You want me to run a company that fails? A company that causes more harm than it helps? Because that sounds terrible, if you ask me.”

 

“This company was doing fine, it was helping our troops and defending this country from threats--”

 

“No, it wasn’t,” Pepper cuts Howard off, “It was selling weapons under the table to terrorist groups, thanks to Obadiah Stane. If Tony hadn’t managed to survive Obadiah’s attempt on his life, this company would be killing thousands of innocent lives.”

 

Howard looks both offended and enraged. “How dare you, Obadiah was my best support in creating this company, how dare you slander his name--”

 

“No, you know what? You didn’t know a damn thing about the man working with you. You certainly didn’t know a damn thing about your son, because you treated him like shit. You didn’t know a damn thing about this company, because you just helped to fuel hatred and death around the world. They used to call Tony the ‘Merchant of Death,’ but that wasn’t him, that was you, and he was trying desperately to live up to your stupid name. Get out, or I’m calling security.”

 

Pepper goes to walk back to her desk, but Howard reaches out and grabs her arm, and something inside her snaps. She uses the moves Natasha had taught her, lashing out and punching Howard in the throat. The pain and shock is enough for Howard to let go of Pepper’s arm, but now she’s mad, and she has no intention of just walking away.

 

“Maybe you missed the memo, since you’re from whatever decade you’re from, but grabbing someone without their permission is called assault, and when the person fights back, that’s called self defense.” Pepper punches again, this time landing a hit to Howard’s mouth, and he recoils, blood dripping from where Pepper’s ring had split his bottom lip.

 

Pepper stomps down on Howard’s foot, and when he starts to bend over to grab his hurt foot, she knees him in the gut, “However, there’s also something called excessive force. That’s where we are now.”

 

“Maybe it’s excessive. Maybe it’s not. But in this century, you’re dead, so it doesn’t matter. Go back to the year you’re from. I’m calling security to get you off the premises.”

 

Pepper walks back over to her desk and picks up the phone, putting in the right number. “Yes, I need security to escort someone out of my office and off the premises. A homeless person, I believe. He tried to assault me. No, pressing charges won’t be necessary. Thank you.”

 

Security arrives a few minutes later, and they half walk, half carry a stunned Howard out of the room. Pepper watches them go, then continues working on the spreadsheet in front of her. The projections for the next fiscal year aren’t going to predict themselves, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
